What is Dumpster Diving?

Dumpster diving is a common method employment by identity thieves and fraudsters in an attempt to get hold of your personal information, and literally involves rifling through trash cans, dumpsters and rubbish tips looking for important documents that people have carelessly disposed of.  It is surprisingly how much key personal information is thrown away every day, from bank statements through to old credit cards and check books, and all of this can be utilised by identity thieves for a number of quite serious crimes such as fraudulently applying for credit products in another person name, or using existing information to access bank accounts and credit cards to steal money and run up charges.

How can I protect against dumpster diving?
•    Treat all documents containing personal information such as your name, address and various account details as confidential and shred everything before you thrown it away.  Always cut up old plastic cards and identity documents, even if they are out of date.
•    Keep your trashcans in a secure place such as your back yard, and only put them out in the road on the day of the rubbish collection.
•    If you move house make sure you update all of your accounts and memberships, to ensure the important mail is not sent to your old address still, as it is likely it will get tossed into the rubbish unopened (rather than redirected to you), leaving it vulnerable to dumpster divers.

It is very important that you protect the personal information in your care against identity theft, as this can type of crime can have far reaching effects on your finances and good credit name, and resolving identity theft cases successfully can be a time consuming and stressful process.